A homesick visitor
I have a guest in my house for the next few hours. She's a cat.
Last night, I was contacted by a friend who needed to temporarily evict one of her two cats. Her landlord was coming over today to do some work, and as far as he is concerned, she only has one cat. Her second cat would have doubled her pet allowance from 300 to 600, which she didn't care to do.
So I have a visitor. It's one of the two cats I had a few weeks ago when my friend left on vacation, but this time there's only one of them. She (the cat) is not thrilled. When I first got her out of her carrier last night, she was very chummy and eager to be on the bed with me, which I enjoy as one of the perks of cat-owning.
But by 3:30 this morning, she was calling out into the darkness of my apartment, hoping there was some other cat nearby who could come out to play. This continued for hours, while I felt like a massive heel. I could call the cat's name, she'd raise her tail and jump up onto the bed, purring contentedly as I rubbed her head. But soon enough, she'd remember and hop down and start yelling again.
By the time I had awoken fully and gone into the bathroom to shower, she and I weren't on speaking terms. The sound of the bathroom fan and water running made her alter her pitch and frequency to even-more-pathetic levels. I thought about evicting her from the bathroom, but I know that closing a door between you and a cat only makes that door the biggest imposition in life: a task that the cat will set all of its brainpower against, if given the opportunity.
But since I returned from the grocery store at lunch time, I have seen and heard nothing from the cat. I don't know where she is, but I assume she'll just stay there quietly until I return from teaching lessons tonight. There's food and fresh water out, so she just needs to hang on a bit longer, before tonight's joyful reunion with her cat friend, beloved owner, and familiar sights and smells.
Last night, I was contacted by a friend who needed to temporarily evict one of her two cats. Her landlord was coming over today to do some work, and as far as he is concerned, she only has one cat. Her second cat would have doubled her pet allowance from 300 to 600, which she didn't care to do.
So I have a visitor. It's one of the two cats I had a few weeks ago when my friend left on vacation, but this time there's only one of them. She (the cat) is not thrilled. When I first got her out of her carrier last night, she was very chummy and eager to be on the bed with me, which I enjoy as one of the perks of cat-owning.
But by 3:30 this morning, she was calling out into the darkness of my apartment, hoping there was some other cat nearby who could come out to play. This continued for hours, while I felt like a massive heel. I could call the cat's name, she'd raise her tail and jump up onto the bed, purring contentedly as I rubbed her head. But soon enough, she'd remember and hop down and start yelling again.
By the time I had awoken fully and gone into the bathroom to shower, she and I weren't on speaking terms. The sound of the bathroom fan and water running made her alter her pitch and frequency to even-more-pathetic levels. I thought about evicting her from the bathroom, but I know that closing a door between you and a cat only makes that door the biggest imposition in life: a task that the cat will set all of its brainpower against, if given the opportunity.
But since I returned from the grocery store at lunch time, I have seen and heard nothing from the cat. I don't know where she is, but I assume she'll just stay there quietly until I return from teaching lessons tonight. There's food and fresh water out, so she just needs to hang on a bit longer, before tonight's joyful reunion with her cat friend, beloved owner, and familiar sights and smells.
Comments
Post a Comment